Tuesday, 16 June 2009

Johnson bid 'accepted' claims media

"Liverpool had an offer of about £18.5 million for Glen Johnson accepted last night" claims the Times.

The article also says Chelsea were “unwilling to match the fee for a player they sold for £4 million two years ago. Manchester City expressed an interest, but have not matched the price, which will include add-ons.” Presumably Johnson will begin negotiating terms with the Reds before the deal can be finalised. Todays Echo says "The Reds are wary about making any official statement after their experience with Gareth Barry last month." It also claims the "fee handed over, however, will be significantly less than £17m, with money still owed for last summer's transfer of Peter Crouch." and "Liverpool would seek to make up the remainder by offloading Alvaro Arbeloa to Real Madrid for £8m and returning Andrea Dossena to Italy."

I’m not sure Liverpool will sell their current right back Arbeloa, as the Spanish defender enjoyed his best season yet with the Reds. The team did not have a natural replacement when he was injured and had to resort to playing Jamie Carragher. My assumption was that Johnson would be competing with Arbeloa for the position, as the team fight in four competitions. Dossena on the other hand appears to be a more viable option to sell. The position has plenty of cover in Aurelio and Degen and the Dossena has expressed a desire to move to Italy with Juventus potential buyers.